By William Abur, Melbourne, Australia
October 30, 2016 (SSB) — As a son of South Sudan who grows up watching the destruction of our brothers and elders who hold Ph.D. qualifications in South Sudan and who also considered take my own study of the Ph.D. project as a Ph.D. candidate. It came to my attention that many people in our society are clearly paranoid or mistrusting the young generations who considering studying Ph.D. I have encountered some good conversations within some honest people who made some courageous about as a Ph.D. career in our South Sudanese society.
Some of my friends reminded me about the role of Ph.D. holders such as Dr. Riek and Dr. Lam Akol, just to mention a few. It is clear that major of our People have lost interest in a Ph.D. career because of the destructive political played by the above mentioned Ph.D. holders. Yes, their supporters are entitled to disagree with me on this point. I’m also happy for them to make their arguments.
The main aim of this essay is to highlight the contribution of Ph.D. holders in any society. People who have Ph.D. qualifications are expected to make contributions in research and academic teaching. They are expected to carry out research works and come up with policies that can assist leaders in decision making in order to address critical issues in facing society such health and social issues. Yes, they can be a politician if they choose that career because politic is an easy job to do in many parts of the world.
However, as a person who considered to take the Ph.D. project, I do believe that our society do need qualified people to make useful contributions in developing research projects to assist our society in progressing the expected level development. I think South Sudanese who are holding their Ph.D. qualifications should leave politics and join research institutions to explore areas of cultural, linguistic, scientific, and pedagogical (educational) and communication etcetera
I think research area has been clearly neglected in South Sudanese because of ignorance and because of the ongoing conflict in the country. I also believe that our young generation have moral responsibilities and duties not to discourage themselves from considering Ph.D. studies if you are capable of taking such a hard project and if you have the resources to do so. Our society does need people with such qualifications in order to position ourselves globally.
Let’s not be blindfolded by the few individuals who choose to follow the politic of destructions with their Ph.D. qualifications and cause more troubles in society. Let’s not be emotional or paranoid about them because it can only lower our expectations and demote our society in the global market. We can only go higher when they go low, if I can borrow this phrase from Michelle Obama. Thanks for taking your time to read this piece of the essay.
William Abur is a PhD candidate at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, finishing his PhD research in areas of social work and sociology. He is also a social worker working in high school in student well-being area. You can reach via his email: William Abur william.abur@gmail.com
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Dear William,
Thanks for your advice in this piece. I believe our people love education from as low as primary education to the tip-top (PHD) of tertiary education. However, The concern kicks in when the educated majority don’t help the societies. This help could be as little as taking criticisms, whether in academic sectors or in both political and social sectors.
Our lives on this earth is designed in a competitive manner. So, some people put other people down to raise their standards, or they do it to change other people to do better. Whichever the case my brother, it’s up to the educated majority to do their jobs and ignore a lot of things(unconstructive criticisms) .
Otherwise,
Best regards.
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@Kur Wel! Many thanks for your diplomatic intervention on the word “majority” in your comment in its existence in the article as ” major of our people”! Also spoted is” destructive political played” to mean destructive politics played” we readers deserve classical articulation to become fans of writers on the stage!
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@ Panda Yentueng, I know what you meant in your comments to the depth of its application. writing is hard so it takes open-minded people a long time to learn it. Readers are the lifelines of writers. They (readers) breathe fresh air into writers to aim for clarity and succinctness.
Panda, I read this blog so I know the trends of the opinions of most op-ed writers. I saw your comments on another article by this writer(William Abur), they(comments) humbled the writer. To me, the comments were harsh. That’s all, my brother.
However, the writer didn’t humble himself to engage you with positive commentaries under the same article. He went ahead and posted this article, invoking the intelligence of the suffering citizens in the hands of the political thin-skins PHD holders in our country. in reality, the writer was responding to a reader’s comment. This is like, the writer who be soon a PHD holder will soon follow the ill-mannered Doctors(PHDs).
Otherwise, my brother, keep reading and commenting.
with best regards.
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Dear Brother Kur wel Kur and Panda Yentueng,
First, I would like to you thanks you all for your time and comments. Second, I’m a junior scholar who likes to consider constructive criticism as a way of improving things. I’m humbled with a view of Brother Kur Wel Kur. I thought you were diplomatic and ethical in your comment.
However, I have no intention of considering the assumption made in this quote “this is like, the writer who be soon a PhD the holder will soon follow the ill-mannered Doctors (PHDs)”. To both of you, the conventional way of spelling PhD acronym is like this PhD not like this PHD. It is a little bit irritating
With brother Panda’s comment in the first article, there is no doubt, his comments were too harsh with bragging about corrections. Yes, I appreciated the effort to the reader and make comments or any correction, which is a normal work of any editor. However, I thought there was no point for me to engage in an unethical argument with an editor who does not have ethical responsibilities. I choose to leave it for him to take a credit without my involvement. I maybe I was selfish and wrong in this case.
I’m aware of the challenges that face writers in both nonacademic and academic writing. Writers do make mistakes which can easily be spotted by the readers. As a writer, we do appreciate and welcome any corrections as long as it is merited with an aim of strengthening the argument. Anyway, I hope I’m not rude in my remarks brothers. You are doing great work by ensuring that our writers share their knowledge and skills with readers.
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@ William, thanks for your comments. Response of any kind is better than none because responding to readers means acknowledging their contributions in any debate.
Again, readers expect the writers to respond their(readers) concerns. So, thanks for doing it.
For the spelling of the Ph.D(Doctor of Philosophy), I know the origin of the acronym, but I capitalised all letters in the abbreviation because the tittle of this article centralises on the acronym. In other disciplines like literature Or poetry, we place emphasis on subjects/topics of our interests by giving them unconventional spellings or names.
So, my brother, I accept the mistake because I would have placed the acronym in quotation marks(e.g. “PHD”) to alert the readers about the new usage of the acronym.
Otherwise, thanks.
With best regards.
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Thanks Brother, Kur Wel Kur. You are one of the few individuals that our people can benefit or learn from. I like your comments, they are professional and ethical brothers. In relation to capitlising PhD letters like this PHD, you are not alone brother, I have seen this in many people’s writing.
I thought brother, Pand Yentueng was clever, but not ethical in his work. So, I choose not engaged with him. I hope he will excuse me for my remark here.
All the best brother.
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No worries, brother. Keep contributing to this blog as you wait for your results from the examiners of your document(thesis).
With best regards.
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Mr. William Abur, in response to your article, I think in our societies of South Sudan, nobody is against high educators, specially PHD holders . But if you do the statistics about the conflict in South Sudan, you found out that what made the matter of the nation worse is a serious involvement of those high educated individuals in the country. As we know, some of those PHD holders are the one who trigger all those calamities among the communities of South Sudan. It’s unfortunate for South Sudan to have the role models in high education who are destructive , engaged in ill-action against the future, and no care of humanity in them. Those PHD holders in South Sudan, ninety-five percent of them are always in confusion and controversial issues . That’s why see some people turned out to criticize them in connection to their level of service and education.
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I absolutely understand your Chagai. Our brothers and sisters with PhD qualifications have done nothing except our late leader Dr John Garang. Some of his projects were meaningful to our Society.
However, I’m optimistic that a younger generation of this nation with PhD qualifications will not waste their time in follow the first rotten onions. I’m you understand what I mean here. Let’s all aim high in education if we have chances to do so, and ingnore such destructive politics.
My message to PhD holders is that you don’t to be in leadership or in politics, you are already a leader and role model to many people if you choose to do the right things in society. I have seen this in my own experienced in the west, many of friends and colleagues who did not have bachelor degrees or masters degrees decision to go back to do their studies. Some these people came to me thanks me my influenced in their decisions. Sometimes I cannot even remember what contributions I have made to influence their decisions.
Anyway, let’s be paranoid and discouraged our young generation.
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That is the best academic spirit to accept and forge the future of well articulated articles. If Dr.William sees readers concern as criticism, it is unfortunate! And if he looks at it as reprimanding, then we would be interested to read the next article with enthusiasm and benefit from his ideas of PhD endeavours.
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